While
a handful of "app stores" like Valve's
Steam have delivered software to PCs in the past, these
stores generally lacked diversity, mostly just offering game
downloads. No PC app store really offered customers the
opportunity to buy instantly-downloadable apps of all kinds --
everything from games to productivity software. That's about to
change as Apple is set to introduce the world's first
full-featured personal
computer App Store on January 6.

Steve Jobs, Apple's
CEO, fond of bragging about the company he founded, states, "The
App Store revolutionized mobile apps. We hope to do the same
for PC apps with the Mac App Store by making finding and buying PC
apps easy and fun. We can’t wait to get started on January 6."

The
Mac App Store will come to Mac users in the form of a Snow Leopard
(OS X 10.6) update.

Apple's press
release even included this nugget: "Apple...recently
introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile
media and computing devices."

Apple often describes its
products
as "magical", but it's hard not to give Apple its dues
when it comes to its success in pioneering the mobile App Store
concept and its equally pioneering effort to port that success to the
PC.

Apple won't be alone in this market for long though --
Google's incoming Netbook/Notebook Chrome OS will feature
a "Web Store" filled with internet apps.
While that app store has technically launched, its app catalog at
this point is very sparse.

"Mac OS X is like living in a farmhouse in the country with no locks, and Windows is living in a house with bars on the windows in the bad part of town." -- Charlie Miller